The Federal Communications Commission documents referred to above set forth standards for electrical connector receptacles or jacks and mating connector plugs which are to be used in the telecommunications industry to achieve standardization of a wide variety of types of equipment used by the industry and used in conjunction with communications equipment. These documents set forth essential dimensions for the jacks and plugs but they leave room for innovation and improvement in the manufacture and performance of the plugs and jacks. A widely used type of jack or receptacle is described in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 3,850,497 and a commonly used type of connector plug is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,954,320.
Application Ser. No. 940,536 discloses and claims a connector receptacle which satisfies all of the requirements of the Federal Communications Commission documents and which differs from the receptacle shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,850,497 in that it has one-piece conductors mounted in the housing which have end portions that extend beyond one of the external sidewalls of the housing and which can be inserted into holes in a circuit board and connected to conductors on the circuit board.
Application Ser. No. 967,441 discloses and claims an improved version of the receptacle shown in the earlier application which permits mounting the receptacle on a circuit board in a manner such that the latching arm of the plug mated with the receptacle is not immediately accessible so that removal of the plug from the receptacle is discouraged. Application Ser. No. 14,442 discloses and claims a receptacle with improved mounting means, and barriers between conductors to maintain separation of free ends and preclude impalement of a small child's finger. Connector receptacles as disclosed in Applications Ser. Nos. 940,536, 967,441, now Patent No. 4,193,654, issued Mar. 18, 1980 and 14,442, now Patent No. 4,210,376, issued July 1, 1980, are favorably viewed by the industry in that they can be mounted on a circuit board more conveniently than previously available jacks or receptacles and have other advantageous features.
The present invention is directed to the achievement of an improved receptacle incorporating some of the principles of the receptacle disclosed and claimed in Application Ser. No. 940,536 and which is intended to be mounted on a circuit board with a rearward end of the connector receptacle housing against the circuit board. Receptacles capable of being mounted in this orientation, with the rearward end of the housing against the circuit board, are required under many circumstances in which conductors and a modular plug are to be disengageably connected to conductors on a circuit board.
A connector receptacle, in accordance with the present invention, comprises a one-piece insulating housing having a plug-receiving end, a rearward end, and a plug-receiving opening extending into the plug-receiving end. The conductors are stamped and formed sheet metal members which extend through side-by-side apertures in one of the external sidewalls of the housing and the conductors have contact spring portions which are reversely bent and extend obliquely into the plug-receiving opening. The apertures are spaced from the plug-receiving end of the housing and the side-by-side conductors are maintained in parallel spaced-apart relationship by virtue of the fact that each conductor is received in one of the apertures. Intermediate portions of the conductors extend from the apertures rearwardly across the adjacent external sidewall and past the rearward end of the housing. Alternate conductors are offset from each other and the intermediate portions of the conductors diverge from each other on this external sidewall so that the second end portions of the conductors are located on triangular centers. The offsetting of the conductors is achieved by the provision of alternately deep and shallow channels in the adjacent external sidewall of the housing. A connector, in accordance with the invention, can be manufactured by simply stamping the conductors from a continuous strip of conductive metal, bending a group of conductors equal to the number of conductors required in a connector, and assembling the group of conductors to the housing in a relatively simple assembling and forming process.
The disclosures of U.S. Applications Nos. 940,536, 967,441, and 14,442 are hereby incorporated by reference.